SOME SEDDON STORIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8137, 18 June 1906, Page 4

SOME SEDDON STORIES.

OLD AND NEW. The following story, told recently by the press, wiH- bear repetition. Mr Seildon was visiting Rangiora, and was called upon to make the inevitable speech. After he had let fall the usual honeyed phrases regarding the children, the comely matrons, and the sturdy settlers, he paused a momont as his eyes gleamed with recognition. A mongst the crowd was a well-known local character called Jim—just plain Jim, who had fiddled for years at local festivities. And the Premier turned to hiin with a beam : "It gives mo greater pleasure than ever to see my old friend, Jim," he said; "we knew each other on the coast years ago, when T used to trip the light fantastic—and 1 cm .iu a bit of it even now—Jim always used to play the fiddle." And the light of reminiscence kindled in the Premier's eye. This little touch of nature made the whole crowd km, and a spontaneous cheer voiced its sympathy.

An old West Coast acquaintance, j who is now a resident of Wellington, was fond of telling a story of " Low Dick Scddon got that scar on the back of his neck." The storyteller, when a lad in liuuiara, had a semi-tame kaka, or native parrot, and was playing with it one day when Mr Seddon happened along. "Is that a tame bird P" he asked the lad. " Yes," was the reply. The Premier that was to be, took up the bird and perched it upon his shoulder. Immediately, the bird bit the lover of nature, and the more the latter pulled the deeper w» nt the beak. Lancashire muscle got the best of the tussle; but, for the remainder of his days, Mr Seddon bore a scar upon the place where the bird seized him. " I thought you said the bird was tame he exclaimed, when he was cool enough to talk to the lad.

The narrator of the above story also recalls the interesting fact that a little oyer twenty years ago Mr Seddon used to carry stores on his burly shoulders through the bush tc the camp of the storyteller and his father. In those diys Mr Seddon kept a store iu Kuma:a. And it was also remembered t iat in its early days in Eumara the Salvation Army had no warmer friend and helper, or more liberal supporter, than " Dick Seddon." The late Premier svas food of recalling his intimate political association with Sir George Grey. When in a reminiscent mood he on one occasion said that on the morning <>r I lie Ist May, 181)3, he received the following mes-

sage: —"You are acting m a great crisis, such as malies a hero. Act nilh your Maker for the good of His creatures. What any oue else may say or do is nothing to you. The millions of your fellow-men and their Maker—lei these be your thoughts. Be Iravc, unselfish, gentle, yet resolute for good. Reflect well before acting; gain tin.e for thought. The good will soon gather round you.—George Grey.' " That evening," said Mr Seddoji, " ] was sworn in as Prime Minister of this country."